us-005578-irn597340-irn627175
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Leonie Berthe Roualet (1900-1978) was born in Hammondsport, New York to Leonie (née Calmesse, 1869-1942) and Henry Charles Roualet (1866-?). Leonie and Henry were both originally from France, where they worked as champagne vintners. They immigrated to New York in 1890, where they continued to work as wine merchants. Leonie Berthe was raised Catholic and had two older brothers, Georges (George, 1891-1951) and Andre (Andrew, 1894-1973), and one older sister, Henriette (1898-1969). Georges served in the U.S. Navy during World War I aboard the USS Wisconsin. After the war, the entire family moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. In the 1930s, Leonie’s mother, Leonie Calmesse Roualet, returned to France to take care of her ailing brother. While caring for her brother, she too became sick, and in 1939 Leonie traveled to France to take care of her mother and her uncle. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and two days later France and Britain declared war on Germany, officially starting World War II. In May 1940, Germany invaded France and occupied the northern half of the country. Leonie’s sister, Henriette, began to worry about the fate of her mother and sister as she struggled to contact them, and she wrote repeatedly to the U.S. State Department for information on their whereabouts. In November, she received a telegram stating that her mother was in a hospital in Bordeaux, while her sister was living with their uncle in Épernay. On December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. Following this declaration, German authorities began arresting American citizens in their occupied territories with the hope that they could exchange them with German citizens interned abroad. On September 24, 1942, the Gestapo arrested Leonie as an enemy alien and sent her to a prison in Châlons. From there she was transferred to Frontstalag 194 in the Vittel internment camp. In Vittel, Leonie lived in hotel-like acco…
conditions of use: Copyright Holder: Mr. Mark Roualet
has beginning date: 1940-01-01
has end date: 1954-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 1982
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn627175
is or was included in: us-005578-irn597340
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as a single folder
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The collection consists of documents and correspondence regarding the Holocaust-era experiences of Leonie Roualet, an American imprisoned in the Vittel internment camp in France. Included is corresondence of Leonie's sister Henriette Roualet with various U.S. government agencies trying to locate Leonie and her mother, two wartime letters exchanged between Leonie and Henriette, Leonie's DP card, and documents related to her post-war involvement with the Red Cross.
title: Leonie Roualet papers